IPL 2016: Mumbai, Pune to share Vizag as home ground; GC shifts crucial fixtures from Eden to Kotla

New Delhi: Ending days of speculations, the Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council on Friday announced that the Eliminator and second Qualifier of the ninth edition of the tournament will be held at the capital’s Ferozshah Kotla stadium instead of Eden Gardens. The IPL GC also decided to have Visakhapatnam as the common main venue for Mumbai Indians (MI) and Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS), in the wake of the Supreme Court dismissing the plea of Maharashtra and Mumbai Cricket Associations against the Bombay High Court order directing shifting of IPL matches outside the drought-hit state. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) will play all their home matches at Mohali and not Dharamsala as stated by the franchise earlier. [caption id=“attachment_2757298” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi. Getty Images[/caption] The Eden Gardens at Kolkata was earlier supposed to host the high-profile Eliminator and second Qualifier. “The main reason to shift one of the qualifiers and eliminator from Eden Gardens is that the time duration is too short between the last home match of KKR scheduled for 22 May and the qualifier. It would be difficult to make logistical arrangements,” IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla said after a meeting of the Governing Council in New Delhi. Speaking about the reason behind not opting for Jaipur as an alternate venue, Shukla attributed it to the PIL whose hearing is scheduled for 3 May. “We wanted to have matches at in Jaipur and were getting lots of support from state government, but since next hearing of PIL is on 3 May, we would have only got five days to arrange the matches. That could have created logistical problems,” Shukla said. While the Eliminator is scheduled for 25 May, the second Qualifier will be held on 27 May. Delhi and District Cricket Association vice president CK Khanna, who is also a vice president in BCCI, welcomed the IPL GC’s move to allot the high profile matches to Kotla and assured it would successfully host the games. The Bombay High Court had on 13 April ordered the shifting of all IPL matches scheduled in Maharashtra after 30 April to other states in view of the severe drought in some parts of the state.